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The WNBA has loved a few of the quickest progress a sports activities league has ever seen, thanks largely to famous person rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. With their play and fan following this yr, they’ve helped the already surging league break data for attendance, viewership, merchandise gross sales and extra.
However high WNBA gamers do not but have the lofty salaries to match.
The three Most worthy WNBA groups — the Las Vegas Aces, the Seattle Storm and the New York Liberty — have been valued in June at between 13 and 70 occasions the worth of their most up-to-date sale, all of which passed off throughout the final 16 years, according to Sportico’s first-ever WNBA team valuations.
Valuations will possible solely rise: The league signed an 11-year $2.2 billion media rights take care of Disney, Amazon Prime and NBCUniversal this summer time. The $200 million-per-year settlement will begin in 2026. The present deal is about $60 million for 2024. As viewership and attendance rise, the league is also adding three teams.
“Elected officers, company, non-public fairness, all people are like how do I get into the WNBA, and the way do I make investments? And may I’ve an enlargement staff, or can I spend money on a present staff?” stated league Commissioner Cathy Engelbert.
But gamers are nonetheless incomes modest salaries relative to their male counterparts within the NBA. Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese make about $76,000 and $74,000 this year, respectively.
Brionna Jones, a seven-year veteran ahead for the Connecticut Solar, earns $212,000 — near what current Most Priceless Participant award winners A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart make.
As soon as the WNBA season is over, Jones performs a second season in Europe, primarily to enhance her wage. About half of the league’s gamers performed abroad in winter 2024 to spice up their incomes.
“I am getting paid to do one thing that I really like yr spherical, and that is nice. However as I am getting older my physique is feeling the fixed put on and tear of enjoying all yr spherical,” stated Jones, who’s 28.
The current collective bargaining agreement, the contract between the league and the gamers’ union, WNBPA, which determines salaries and different provisions, runs via 2027. Nonetheless, in November, both facet can choose out of the deal. In the event that they do, the brand new contract can be negotiated on the finish of the 2025 season and take impact in 2026.
It stays to be seen how a lot the league can enhance its salaries, at the same time as the worth of media rights and franchises skyrocket. The WNBA and its groups are anticipated to lose about $50 million this yr, in line with one report in The Washington Put up.
Engelbert stated the flexibleness to choose out of the CBA was all the time part of the plan.
“I wished that opt-out for us and for them, as a result of I need to return extra to the gamers via the collectively bargained issues like wage,” she stated. “However we have already completed it outdoors of collective bargaining and possibly shocked some individuals by doing that.”
Engelbert is referring to the charter flights program added league-wide for journey to and from video games this yr. That alone will cost about $25 million per year. The league additionally elevated playoff bonuses this yr. The cash is allotted from the $75 million the WNBA raised in 2022 from a group of investors.
Although the WNBA’s success has not but led to the huge salaries seen in males’s professional sports activities, many within the league imagine it is solely a matter of time.
“It is simple to take a look at different leagues and see the multimillion {dollars} that these of us are getting,” stated Stephanie White, head coach of the Connecticut Solar. “And we’ll be there sooner or later. It is simply persevering with the optimistic progress that we have made and ensuring that the sustainability of this league for the longer term generations remains to be going to be there.”
